Sugar Bowl to host Backcountry Ball fundraiser

Sugar Bowl Resort will be hosting the Backcountry Ball – an evening of food, drink and music – to benefit the Sierra Avalanche Center on Friday from 5 to 10 p.m. It will feature a presentation by legendary big mountain snowboarder Jeremy Jones.

The event will be held at the resort’s Mt. Judah Lodge. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door, and are available at www.sierraavalanchecenter.org.

Tickets include a pasta buffet dinner and live music by the Sierra Drifters, a four-piece Americana, roots rock band. Attendees who order Sugar Bowl Pale Ale at the cash bar will send $1 per beer in donations to the SAC.

Vendors will be showcasing the latest backcountry gear and a silent auction will feature prizes including an unrestricted season pass to Sugar Bowl/Royal Gorge.

Jones will give a 30-minute presentation on backcountry terrain selection and big mountain riding. He has been featured in dozens of snowboard films and was selected as a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year in 2013. His last two Teton Gravity Research films, “Deeper” and “Further,” featured himself and team of backcountry riders accessing some of the world’s most intense big mountain snowboard terrain all on foot and by splitboard. Jones is currently filming for “Higher,” the last film of the backcountry snowboard trilogy that will feature terrain from the Sierra Nevada to the Himalaya.

Sugar Bowl Resort has hosted the Backcountry Ball for five years as a way to support the nonprofit Sierra Avalanche Center and its team of two full-time avalanche forecasters.